Ok, I just learned about the 1 time lootable gold/XP objects that phase per character around Panda-land. I figured these are a GREAT way to push through level 85 and get to the good stuff, so I set up a favorites for a guided route.

Problem is that reaching them in a set order really requires flight, at which points they aren't so hot for the XP anymore.

So I decided I would just get them to highlight on the map for me with cute icons, so that when I am questing in the area, I spot the note and can rush to get a free boost to XP.

So this had me setting up Notes and Favorites(targets) at the same time.

I used /way commands to feed in the initial data for the Targets, worked like a charm, though going back through to name things was a bit annoying.

I used /carb note to place the notes, and this generated a new folder titled Notes, with sub folders titled per zone.

This worked nicely, if I clicked on the Favorite then I got a route for fast visit by flight, and icons from the notes always show up, so those serve their intended purpose.

Overall, this was a bit messy for my tastes, so I attempted to consolidate, and this is where the suggestion/issues come in:

Moving a Note item into the Targets/Favorites area caused the route to break. I had noticed that placing a comment had the same result. You no longer see the full pathway lined out.

I placed Notes in the Targets by doing a cut/paste through right click menu. There seemed to be no function to just add a blank item and then set what it is (note, target, whatever else is possible) and where it is and the like. All you can do it change the name once an item exists.

I moved everything out of the notes and into my targets. A few items changed their location data when I did this, which was a nuisance, but I dealt with it.

However, while under the Notes section that was built by /carb note command, the icons would always show on map. Once moved to the Targets section, the icons disappeared, even if I activated that particular route.

So not having the icons permanently on the map was a bad thing. I cut/pasted back to a notes section and decided my method for cleaning up would just be to combine all the zone folders to one titled folder.

But after I cut/pasted everything back over, I realized that it moved every single one of my notes (from basically all zones but Dread Wastes and Vale of Eternal) into Jade Forest (the zone I placed my dummy note in to generate a folder).

So I have to re-do everything now. And I am hoping that we can get some improvement to the overall design of favorites/notes.

If you do take the time to look over the favorites/notes, I HIGHLY encourage you to design a file system where we can easily cut/paste a chunk of text from a comment on Wowhead or in these forums to use a shared favorites or note set.

Doing this will make sure that Carbonite replaces Tomtom as the map of choice for a LOT of people.

One of the main things going for Tomtom is that if you need something, you can count on going to wowhead and finding a set of cut/paste macros to set up waypoints for it.

But if you could do a single cut/paste and get an entire favorites and notes chunk... which then means an optimized route along with the arrow deal, and commments to boot AND carbonites awesome maps....

As a comparison, to set up waypoints for all of the candy buckets during Halloween event just now, I had to create about 15 macros. That was a lot of copy/paste/press/repeat. And I will have to do it again next year. And I had to watch my world map while I flew around, because CLOSEST waypoint didn't mean BEST waypoint (would cause you to skip 2 or 3 in the south tip of Eastern Kingdoms, making you come back for them after going all the way up to Western Plaguelands for one thing). When I got the update for Carbonite to use /way additions, I copy/pasted those same macros all over again to set up a Favorites folder, then optimized the flight paths, and now I never have to touch them again for the coming years or any alternate characters I use.... And if I could easily share them to the forums here, I happily would. But right now the file where these are stored is a bit messy when you have as many notes and favorites routes as I do.

Carbonite would greatly benefit if one of its most powerful feature, routing Herbs and Ore nodes, could be expanded to route also Treasure nodes as well as use the biggest and most up to date database available through the GathererDB Wowhead addon.

A couple of suggestions I would like to see is: 1. An option to make the text in the quest tracker able to be right justified. 2. The ability to abandon quests from the quest tracker/open up the quest log/achievement window (dunno if any of these things are planned however hehe).

If it hasn't already been mentioned I would like to see Carbonite link to Shared Media. I have a lot of fonts that I use for my UI, but there are only 4 available in Carbonite after Rythal took over the project.

I would love to be able to turn off the questing, but still be able to use the auto turn in.

I use quest guru for questing because it allows me to adjust its size, has the objects along the side for using in a quest, allows me to click a quest and turn it in when its one of those new turn in kind that blizzard came up with. I've had to stop using carbonite, since the new patch because it was making my frame rate drop really low when i crossed borders or when there was a lot of spells being cast around me. So it made me lag out extremely bad in dungeons and raids. I hope making it modular will fix that problem as I hate not having a good map to look at when i am running around doing things in game, whether its gathering or questing.

Carbonite requires map name localizations to function properly, and that's the problem -- so it will not work on zhCN locale.

But there is actually a library including these map name locales: Libbabble-Subzone.

I copied data from the library to Carbonite's localizaion.lua then Carbonite works on zhCN locale clients like a charm. And after every major update all I need to do is to download the latest library and re-copy it.

Since I saw many users waiting and yelling for localization fixes...How about integrate this library into Carbonite, make the flightmaster.lua to use localization(just split by the comma then use the lib). As long as the lib lives, you don't need to worry about localizations!

I still have some small amount of hope left that this addon will once again show things like "Fishing Schools" on either or both of its two map views (the larger one and the smaller one). It's very strange that Carbonite map views don't show them, although it used to. Merging the Blizzard minimap into Carbonite is not a logical alternative. It makes Carbonite's two map (views) nearly worthless, on their own. The customized Google map is zoomable and attractive, but without having relevant POI's incorported, it's missing much of its former value. I see no reason why Fishing Schools (and other similar POI's) cannot be shown, unless this addon has finally died, unfinished in its tracks.

I dread to think what Carbonite will be like after Blizzard releases their new expansion. If Rythal can't or won't do it, maybe some other brave soul with enthusiasm, expert programming skills, time and heart will take on the challenge and not vanish into the nether. History is repeating itself, again. I'm wondering where Haavok is and how he's doing?

It's too bad this addon cannot be reformatted to meet Blizzard's addon guidelines (like Zygor's addons do). Then, it most definitely would be financially viable for a qualified, determined team of addon authors to keep this significant addon up-to-date. Now that the code has gone 'public,' that may not be possible.

I agree with Kreelor. I personally think the operative phrase is "qualified, determined team of addon authors".

Rythal has proven himself more than qualified to lead such a team. I feel however that rewriting this addon may have turned out to be a bigger task than he originally thought. I think delegating parts of this addon to specific people who have the time and willingness to spend an hour or more a day (or week) on it would make this task a bit easier. It may even make it possible to provide a new release that might win back people who have abandoned Carbonite and keep those thinking about looking for a viable (free) alternative from looking any further.

Carbonite 2 has a lot of potential, and I have not stopped updating quest and map coordinates on my computer as I play now and then. I won't be submitting them with notes anymore though until I see signs of life that indicate work has been resumed and updates will be accepted and applied.

One tip though for other dyi people using the latest Alpha/Beta version, if you have a problem with quests not in the database, deleting the quest objective list from the related quest section in the .lua file will force Carbonite to use Blizzard's quest database in most cases. Disclaimer: Backup the file first so you can restore it if you accidentally delete the wrong or to much stuff. I always keep the original files I change and also save the updated files in a special folder for future releases that don't include my updates/corrections.

I hope this helps.

__________________
I'm not an addon author or connected with any of the addons where I may post questions or provide suggestions for others seeking help. I just play the game and post when I have a question or suggestion about the addons I use.

Last edited by JWMcQuire : 01-10-14 at 01:23 PM.
Reason: added clarification regarding time spent by addon team members